Uphill
by Purple Tornado
Summary: Events have occurred that have left the Arrow team in shambles. His faith in their mission has been compromised and it has left everyone fending for themselves.
1. Divide

~Prelude~

"I know you told me to stop looking into this...but I just couldn't, and...when you see it you'll know why this is so important." She pulled her face into an expression that signified she was waiting for him to respond. Her breathing quickened for each second that passed.

"Come on, you have to look at this. It's our only hope. Please..." Her pleading finally produced a raised eyebrow in question from him.

"I don't NEED to look at anything..." Were the words that escaped his lips after several minutes of silence. "I told you, to leave it alone. And as always, you went against my orders."

That particular word "orders", made her skin crawl, and she almost threw the papers at him in anger. "You know what? Fine. If you don't want to protect this city anymore, then I'll do it myself." With that she turned on her heel awkwardly and walked to the metal staircase leading out of the increasingly gloomy looking basement headquarters of their operation.

She wasn't crying, or even angry. More than anything, she felt disillusioned. The man she had followed for all these years, believing in his quest for making the city a safe place to be, trusting him to know what to do with the monsters of this world, had dissipated. She knew the deaths he'd experienced of people close to him, had taken a toll on his soul, but leaving the city to be ravaged by madmen was a disservice to their memories. Her last hope had been the news clippings she had intended to give him, of which he had no interest in it seemed. With that, her last thought of his kindness died within her.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 –

**One year ago.**

"Look, you think you could just stop staring at the phone and just pick it up and call him?" Thea Queen said while admiring the new shoes she'd bought that day, sending the blonde in question a sympathetic thought. Her brother was never easy to be around, but this had been going on for too long and she was tired of having to walk on eggshells between them. Felicity needed an intervention and that's what she'd set out to do, this completely uneventful (save the new shoes) Saturday afternoon.

Felicity smiled, but kept her gaze firmly on the phone in question. "You'd think I wouldn't be that scared of calling him. I mean, I've known him for years now." She fidgeted slightly, as if to gather some courage. "You know, the first time we met, I was being my rambling silly self? He just smiled. I don't think I've ever met anyone who found it that endearing as he seemed to do…" Thea smiled at her. Knowing that Felicity harbored deep feelings for her brother, had not escaped her feminine senses, but she wasn't quite sure that Oliver felt the same.

Ever since her brother had come home from Lian Yu, he had been different. Stronger, capable in ways that even she had yet to discover, but suspected. And yet, he also seemed weaker, in his soul. His smile never quite reached his eyes.

"Thea… I don't think I can." She finally rationalized. "I mean, the last time we spoke he was so angry… I knew I shouldn't have done what he…explicitly…told me not to do…I apologized, and he said he understood…I…just don't know what to say to him." Felicity leaned back on the couch, removing her glasses and pinching her nose bridge in frustration over her inability to just call Oliver and try and mend things.

Thea scooted closer to her friend and rested her head on Felicity's shoulder. "Felicity." She started with a firm tone. "All you have to do is tell him the truth and then see what he says. If he can't at least respect you for taking a stand, then do you really want his forgiveness for going against his wishes?" Thea asked. Felicity shook her head, as if not willing to listen to reason.

"What if he doesn't pick up?" Felicity asked solemnly. Thea could only smile at the inquiry, almost forgetting how it was to be in love with someone and how that tended to overshadow any rationale you might possess. Deep down, she knew that Felicity was only worried because she cared so much for Oliver and what he thought of her. However, banging Felicity over the head with this fact would not benefit either of them, so Thea decided a different approach had to be used.

Lifting her head off of Felicity's shoulder, she reached for the phone on the coffee table, unlocking it and promptly dialing Oliver's number. She could see Felicity starting to protest out of the corner of her eye, but before she'd managed to get her glasses back on, the phone was already ringing. Thea smiled wickedly and held the phone out for Felicity to take it.

"no…no I will not." Felicity mouthed, but Thea showed no sign of relenting.

"Yes?" Oliver's firm voice spilled out of the speaker and Felicity clamped her hand over her mouth as to not make a sound. Seconds ticked by in what seemed like hours to Felicity, but her steadfast friend kept the phone in Felicity's direction and urged her to get her act together and "confront your fear" so to speak.

"I really don't have ti…" Oliver started but was cut off.

"Oliver. It's me. Felicity, which you know because you have caller ID and I realize that I'm making a fool out of myself right now explaining to you that you have caller ID, because of course you know that. So I'm assuming you're no longer mad at me, since you actually picked up." She heard a puff of air through the receiver. It could either mean he was becoming even more annoyed with her, or that he was softening up and perhaps even smiling at her ramble. "Regardless, I just wanted to call you and again explain that I am really sorry for going off without you and not listening to what you said. I know you meant well and that you don't want me to unnecessarily put myself into a dangerous situation…of which I am prone to do for some reason…I swear your vigilanting is rubbing off on me. Yeah, vigilanting, it's a word now." The more Felicity talked the better she felt, because Oliver had yet to stop her. All of her stress and worry eased out of her slowly as she continued this flow of words and became rather removed from the original intent of her phone call. She was brought back to earth when Oliver stopped her.

"Felicity… I was never mad." He breathed with that stoic voice he possessed.

She was dumbstruck at his response. Immediately felt foolish for even worrying so much about it and made a mental note of instructing Thea to hit her over the head the next time she decided to get so damn female.

"Oh, okay. Good. Great. Super. Well, I guess that was all I wanted to say then. I'll see you later." She waited for an acknowledgement and hung up after they'd said their goodbyes.

Thea eyed the flummoxed blonde as she put the phone down on the coffee table, leaned back on the couch again while she closed her eyes. "I am guessing that was not exactly the reaction you were expecting?" Thea prodded after a second or two of silence as Felicity tried to stabilize her breathing.

"I have had it with trying to figure him out, he's just…un-figurable."

Thea laughed softly before she leaned forward to rest her elbows on her legs. "He… he changed Felicity. On the island. He's still my brother, but even I have a hard time figuring out where his head is at." Thea moved a hand through her hair and sighed. "I just wish he'd be completely honest with us…for once."

**Across town,**

In the basement under Verdant, Oliver Queen was keeping himself busy after the conversation with Felicity. He knew he'd been slightly curt with her when he found out she'd explicitly gone against his wishes, but he'd never imagined she would come to the conclusion that he was mad at her. In retrospect he realized that Felicity, however capable in ways of interpreting computer code, was not as adept at deciphering social clues. So his firm but vocal reaction to saving her from a precarious situation probably had come off as slightly angry. He made a mental note of trying to explain to her when he saw her next that his occasionally gruff approach was not meant to be taken so literally.

Oliver knew that Felicity would probably do fairly well in simple self defense, but her skills would be severely lacking in a knife fight – which is what he found her in the middle of. If it hadn't been for his ever present paranoia of losing the people he cared about, he probably would never have put a tracker in Felicity's phone, which had lead him to the aforementioned knife fight. Whatever pride he felt for Felicity not thinking twice about the fact that she could have gotten herself killed, but went anyway because a life was at stake, was decidedly overshadowed by his fear of losing her. Of losing any of the people he called his family at the present state.

After living in hell on Lian Yu, Hong Kong and surviving a return to Starling City, he was both weary of bringing people into his life, because of the danger it would present, but also thankful for the ones who proved to be trustworthy and able to contain some sort of common sense. Except Felicity… She had always been the odd one out, ever since he'd laid eyes on her that day at Queen Consolidated.

He had not met a single person since he'd been back, that surprised him quite as much as she did. Strong willed (also known as stubborn), incredibly intelligent and bestowed with such grace in the form of willingness to fight for the downtrodden. She was an integral part of "Team Arrow", and he knew he'd never quite find someone like her, even if he actively looked for it.

He had started to wonder though, if she just simply had a death wish, or if she was so intent on making him proud of her, that she'd brave situations that she knew were too much for her to handle. He'd once told her, that she'd always be "his girl", he now wondered if that was too much pressure.

The door at the top of the stairs opened slowly and John Diggle came into the lair, greeting Oliver with a small nod of his head.

"I hear you finally let Felicity off the hook about that burglar incident last week." Oliver returned to looking over his collection of trick arrows and refused to acknowledge what Diggle had said. "I guees we're not talking about it then?" he continued as he walked calmly towards the screen where they at the present moment kept surveillance info on a new gang of robbers in Starling City.

"It was never my intention to have her…ON… the hook for anything, Diggle. She knows what she did was irresponsible and that's all I wanted for her to realize." Oliver said as he rose from the table of trick arrows and placed a few of the explosive ones in his quiver. "She never should have been there, and you know that. Next time, if you have any inclination that she's attempting to do something like that, please restrain her…or tell me, so I can do it." Diggle chuckled softly.

"That's about as likely as me getting an actual disguise, like the rest of you guys…"

Oliver rolled his eyes and joined his closest confidante at the surveillance screen. "How about a ski mask?" John's only response was a grunt that said more than any thousand words.

"I guess that's a no then."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 –

**Starling City**

Grabbing the keys on the side table and checking her hair and makeup in the mirror one last time before exiting the front door, Laurel sighed at her reflection.

It was Sunday afternoon, and a rather large fundraising event was taking place at the downtown Hilton. She could never enjoy these functions, yet they were a necessary evil. In her world, while everyone talked a good game, no one ever had the intention of actually cleaning up the streets of Starling. It was all empty promises, expensive wine and phony smiles and it sickened her.

Ever since she had taken up the mantle from her beloved sister Sara, she didn't feel comfortable in this part of the world anymore. Being Black Canary, was an identity she couldn't put down, even when out of her disguise. Sara's death had fueled a fire in Laurel that she had never experienced before, one that she would never back down from, even if it meant she could risk losing her life. Those were the terms of the path she had chosen, and there was no part of her that didn't consider it completely worth it.

Opening the front door, she smiled when she saw Tommy leaning against the wall casually, wearing a suit that hugged just the right parts of him. His eyes found hers and it was like, for but a second the world was infinitely brighter.

"Laurel Lance… Have I told you lately how exquisitely delicate you look?" Tommy said with the ease that Laurel had come to love so dearly about him. There were no forced moments, hidden agendas or manipulative actions with Tommy. He was completely and utterly in love with her. This made her ache for a second, considering that she had this double life that she could never tell him about. It made her feel so deceitful, but she was not prepared to lose Tommy and that meant keeping Black Canary a secret. If Tommy knew he would either leave her, or she would effectively put him at risk, and that was one thing she had determined to never do.

"Well, no, but it has only been twelve hours since you last saw me. I think a little flirtation would be suitable right about now." Laurel said while walking slowly towards him, holding his gaze as she did. Tommy moved away from the wall and held out his arm for her to intertwine with his. _Always the gentleman_, Laurel thought to herself. "Shall we Merlyn?"

"We shall indeed, Miss Lance." Tommy said with that effervescent twinkle in his eye.

_Oh, you're going to be the death of me Tommy Merlyn, I just know it. My very own kryptonite…_

With that thought, she kissed his cheek slowly, savoring the moan that escaped his lips and how he closed his eyes slowly as she did.

_Or maybe, I'll be yours._

**Hilton, Starling City**

People were milling about the ballroom at the hotel and Oliver was looking for Diggle amongst the crowd. They had caught some Intel about the gang of robbers, and that they were targeting the fundraiser. Oliver loathed events like these, because in the back of his mind all he could see was the potential danger of having all these higher ups in society gathered in a room together. They were basically sitting ducks, regardless of how good "security" they hired at these shindigs.

However, it was a part of his old persona to be present at such things, and for all intents and purposes he was still "Oliver Queen", eligible bachelor and interim CEO of Queen Consolidated. He still needed to keep up appearances, however much he thought it was a big waste of his time.

"Diggle, I think we need to make sure that the upstairs stairwell entrance is covered by security. We can't leave any of those entry points be without eyes." Oliver discreetly checked his watch while speaking into the microphone in it.

"I'm on it." Diggle said without hesitation.

In the meantime the ballroom doors opened and Oliver caught sight of the newcomers to the event; Laurel and Tommy. He had tried to convince Laurel to not come and have her convince Tommy to stay in, but as she had rightly pointed out to Oliver, if Tommy Merlyn was one of the benefactors, there was absolutely no way he could not make an appearance.

"Diggle, Tommy and Laurel just arrived. I'll intercept them, so to not raise suspicion." He waited for acknowledgement from Diggle and then went on his way to weave through the crowd.

As soon as Tommy saw Oliver his face lit up. Oliver thought of his best friend and how impressed he was at how he'd turned his philandering playboy ways around and found love with Laurel. In the best of worlds, he couldn't think of a better coupling than those two.

"Tommy. Laurel. Good to see you two." Oliver politely greeted them; shaking hands with Tommy and giving Laurel a kiss on the cheek away from Tommy, while whispering to her that everything was clear so far and no issues had been raised. Laurel nodded in agreement when Oliver drew back again and they all started conversing lightly. Talking about the fundraising, the good cause, the stuck up party guests.

Felicity came over the comms as she was sitting safely in the Foundry staying on top of all the communication from the rent-a-cop security at the event. "Oliver, there's still no rumblings of any foul play. This is a good thing I'm sure. I am however annoyed that I was told to stay behind; I could have easily stayed safe AND been doing this. You know how well I multitask, which is more than could be said of you. Wait… I didn't mean that. Anyway, all is clear on this front." Oliver rolled his eyes at how dramatic she was making it sound, but he had been firm in his decision that she should sit this one out. It was a big event, too many people, too many variables, and there was no way she'd be able to stay safe if there would be commotion. When she had protested earlier that day, he'd only had to say two words. "Knife fight." That had shut her up immediately and she accepted her duty with no further complaints…that is, until now.

"Felicity, I thought this discussion was over, I am not going to say any more in this matter. Now keep your mind focused on the task at hand." Oliver calmly commanded after he'd excused himself from Tommy and Laurel's company. He was now on his way to the downstairs stairwell entrance, wondering if they would be coming through those or somewhere else.

He had positioned Roy on the balcony opposite of the ballroom doors of the party where he was staying close to Thea and everything seemed to be calm. However, it wasn't long till his adrenaline was flowing through his body at a pace that almost felt inhuman.

It was Felicity that sounded the alarm as she had picked something up on the scanner, one of the security cops had been knocked out and there was a scuffle over the frequency. "Oliver, the security guy in the kitchen has been taken out. I repeat, kitchen. Now!" Oliver walked fast but trying to not draw too much attention to himself. Right before he reached the double doors to the kitchen, they burst open and out poured a group of seven men dressed in white but with disfigured clown masks covering their faces.

Panic started to spread through the room at a fast pace and Oliver spoke into his comm. Unit with a steady voice. "Diggle, downstairs, seven suspects with masks and Ak-47's. They are carrying bags. We need to contain this." Diggle responded quickly and Oliver saw him walking against the flow of people trying to get as far away from the masked men as possible. Oliver ducked to the right, going with the flow of people, his mind set on getting his suit that was located in the downstairs closet in the stairwell.

"Felicity, cut the power to the downstairs stairwell camera." Felicity nodded to herself and did as she was told.

"Done."

Oliver ran for the closet as soon as he was out of view of the masked men.

Back in the ballroom Diggle was standing as close as he could get to the intruders, without making himself seem like a threat to them. He spoke into his comm. Unit. "Roy, Laurel. If there is any chance you can get away, take the opportunity, right now." Laurel and Roy acknowledged Diggle and they both led their respective halves off to the side, out of harm's way.

"Ladies, and gentlemen. We are here tonight to ask of you, something that we hope you'll part with easily, so we do not NEED to take it by _force_." A guy with a black and white clown mask yelled into the room. "We are armed, this is not a joke… all though it is rather funny, isn't it?"

Diggle grimaced at the word _force_, and warned Oliver over the comms about what had been said. Oliver responded that he'd take care of it.

The clown masked people started going to those people nearest to them, holding their bags out with one arm, and their trigger finger on their guns. People rid themselves of jewelry, wallets, phones whatever they had available.

"Felicity, I need you to reroute the power in the ballroom." Oliver demanded and Felicity obeyed quietly and quickly.

As the lights went out in the ballroom, and the emergency lights came on, the screaming started. Before any of the masked men could react, the first four were already taken down by Oliver – tranquilizing two of them and shooting the other two in the leg and shoulder, incapacitating them quickly. Oliver had positioned himself on the balcony where he had the best overview of the downstairs ballroom floor. The remaining three intruders, including the one who had spoken started shooting in the general area of the balcony, but thankfully the most of the people who had previously occupied it had left. Oliver jumped from the balcony using a rope arrow so he could land safely and his voice boomed out into the room.

"Put down your weapons and I won't hurt you."

The leader cackled.

"There he is… The protector of Starling. What. A. Hero." He spat out menacingly, Oliver knew they wouldn't back down and as the man aimed his gun at him, he smiled to himself. _Fine, we'll do it your way._


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 –

**Hilton, Starling City**

The leader of the group started firing towards Oliver; he jumped swiftly to the left and avoided the incoming barrage of bullets. As the visibility had been lowered considerably in the room, Oliver concentrated on making that work for him, sending an arrow into the calf of the intruder right behind the guy currently shooting at him. It went straight through and the man fell to the floor clutching his leg in pain.

_Amateurs…_ Oliver thought as he took advantage of the leader reloading his gun, sending a smoke arrow in his direction. When it exploded in a cloud of grey, Oliver charged towards him and effectively knocked him out leaving just one man left.

Before he could apprehend the last remaining member of the intruders, he gave himself over without a fight. Oliver admired his swift shutdown of the intruders, happy that they seemed utterly inept to handle anything but be taken out by him. He then tuned back into what Felicity was saying over the comms unit.

"SCPD is on their way and moments from entering the ballroom – I think this should be your cue to leave." Oliver acknowledged the instructions and left the ballroom without anyone noticing which way he escaped out of. Soon after, the SCPD stormed the room and the lights flickered back on courtesy of one Felicity Smoak.

**The Foundry**

Oliver walked down the stairs slowly to be greeted by his team. Diggle, Roy and Laurel had already made it back before him and were talking about what had transpired at the fundraiser, hoping it was the last they'd heard of these men's doings.

"Oliver, all men were apprehended by the SCPD when you left and are currently on their way to Iron Heights. I'd call that a nice days work." Felicity said with pride in her voice and Oliver acknowledged her with a small nod of his head.

"As far as we could pick up, the SCPD received notification from the guests at the party; that the Arrow saved them, and with no casualties I think we're good on all fronts." Diggle chimed in as he poured over the information on the surveillance screen. "The identities of the men will be released to the public in a few hours, but Felicity managed to snag some info on them and their prior accomplices, in case we need to investigate further…"

"What was the deal with the clown masks they were wearing? Any significance?" Roy piped up as everyone gathered around the surveillance screen with Diggle.

"At the DA's office we've been hearing for a long time, rumblings of a group of people that indentify themselves with those clown masks. I can't imagine it means anything, other than they are part of the same group?" Laurel questioned.

Oliver nodded slightly, pondering the clown masks. It wasn't that they were clown masks; it was that they were disfigured. Usually the clown masks he'd encountered were just masks that were painted like clowns. These had to have been specially made.

"We should have gotten hold of one of them, to possibly trace where they were manufactured." Roy mused as everyone agreed on his observation.

"I agree, IF there's another run in with them to be had, I'd like anyone of you in the field try and grab one of them. We should try and keep ahead of the curve as much as possible." Diggle ordered and no one had any disagreement with it.

Felicity moved away from the group and positioned herself in front of her screens again, running various traces over the city, listening on police radio frequencies and 911 calls of Starling City, flagging anything that could prove useful to the team. She more or less had these scans going continually, setting up her phone to be notified if anything of major importance was picked up by her programs. At the present moment, peace seemed to have covered Starling City and it made Felicity sigh contentedly.

Slowly, people left the Foundry to go home to their loved ones, and as always it left Oliver and Felicity there alone. Diggle and Laurel both had dependable, supporting and loving partners in their lives, and Diggle even started his own family. Sure, Oliver had family, or parts of it. Thea had Roy and Oliver had finally come to trust Roy with his sister. Oliver's father was long dead, his Mother was gone and Walter had left. So naturally he only had the Foundry left.

Felicity was more or less in the same situation. Her Mother, while alive, lived hours away and they didn't have the best relationship in the first place. This left Felicity feeling like an orphan most of her adult life.

Oliver approached Felicity as she sat in her usual place in front of her screens, pouring over an incredible amount of data. How she kept all those lines of numbers and names straight was beyond him. Watching her and understanding the amount of time and focus she put into being a part of this team, made him appreciate her that much more. It also solidified for him that she was irreplaceable. When Dig and she joined him on his crusade, he hadn't for a second imagined how much these people would end up meaning to him and he was incredibly grateful for having them in his life.

"Felicity." He said softly, but it appeared she didn't hear him.

"Felicity," he tried again and gently touched her shoulder, which startled her a little and she whipped around.

"What? Sorry." She said with wide eyes, and Oliver chuckled to himself. _She definitely would not make a good ninja._

"Look, I think we have some things we should sort out." He said and sat down on her desk to the right of her.

Felicity cringed on the inside.

_Here it comes, he's still mad, he's going to yell at you…_

"Felicity… Like I told you, I was never mad." Oliver said with a soothing voice, which made Felicity realize she'd just said what she was thinking…out loud. Her cheeks burned slightly with embarrassment.

"Totally did not mean to say that out loud. Sorry." She blurted out.

Oliver smiled at her reassuringly. "Like I said, I was never mad… I was frustrated, disappointed maybe, but I could never be angry with you. That would imply you did something that was completely unreasonable, but I, one hundred percent, understand your reasoning for getting in the middle of it…even though I told you not to. You wanted to save someone's life, and if there's anyone that will understand that, it is me." Felicity tried to keep his gaze but it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Her embarrassment for saying her thoughts out loud, turned to nervousness because of his close proximity to her, currently still in Arrow gear. "However, when I tell you to stay out of something next time, I expect you to trust my reasoning and understand that it has nothing to do with excluding you, but in fact it is to protect you." His words made a lot of sense and she felt her anxiety drop significantly as he explained.

"Oliver, I get that I am not a "fighter" as Diggle, Roy or Laurel, but I _can _actually handle myself. If you'd just give me a chance to prove it. Maybe if Dig gave me some pointers or something?" Oliver sighed as he stood up from the desk.

"Under no circumstance will that ever happen, and that's final Felicity." He said; his voice an octave or so lower than normal signifying he was becoming slightly annoyed.

"Oliver you can't expect me to always be here, waiting on everyone and just hoping you'll all make it home in one piece. You can't demand that of me…" Felicity said as she swiveled around in her chair to face him.

"Let me put it this way…" Oliver said as he walked straight towards her, put his hands on the armrests of her chair and looked her straight on. "Do you, at any point think that it would be easy for me to watch if you get hurt?" his voice was low, almost growling.

Her voice was escaping her but she finally managed to utter: "Nnno?"

He kept staring straight at her and continued. "If you were ever to get hurt, you know whose fault that would be? Mine. I would be the reason something happened to you, and you just can't ask me to do that." Felicity started to slowly respond but Oliver cut her off. "I've lost a lot of people in my life Felicity. People I loved." Felicity swallowed a lump in her throat. "Sara is gone." Felicity's breath hitched at the mention of Sara. "My father…my mother…dead." Felicity tried to avert his gaze. She knew all of the people he'd lost and she understood that he was afraid to lose more, but she still felt he was holding her back.

"Oliver…" she breathed, and reached for his cheek. He accepted the caress and cast his eyes down.

A million emotions ran through her when her hand connected with his cheek.

"Felicity… I… Just can't let you take that risk. There are no guarantees in this world, and I could never willingly put you in danger." he opened his eyes slowly and connected with hers. His breath hitched and there was electricity in the air.

"BEEP BEEP" Felicity's computer blared behind them and she whipped around. Her screens all turned black until a face slowly appeared on all of them. It was dark, barely visible.

A menacing cackle started to come through the speakers.

"Starling City… This is your…salvation speaking."

Felicity glanced at Oliver, who had a fearful look in his eyes.

The figure on the screen looked pale, almost completely white as a sheet, ghostly, but before Felicity or Oliver could react to it, the face faded to black and the screen suddenly focused on a group of people sitting in a circle, tied together with some kind of contraption.

"This, this is my gift to you Starling." The voice said off screen. "My gift to the _Arrow_." The voice said with venom lacing his words.

"Let's see your precious vigilante save the day now."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 –

**The Foundry**

Oliver and Felicity looked at each other with absolute fear in their eyes.

"Felicity, start a trace of the transmission, immediately." Oliver said while he was already moving away from the desk and started towards his suit and bow.

"I'm trying, but the transmission keeps moving all the time. I think they're bouncing the signal around several servers across town….." Felicity said with a choked up voice.

The menacing figure continued on the screen beside Felicity and the sound of it made her skin crawl, especially combined with the view of the several innocent civilians, who were trapped in the room together with, what looked like a bomb.

"I won't tell you where I am, _Arrow;_ that will be for your brilliant IT girl to figure out." He cackled as the screen went completely black.

"Felicity, I need a location and I need one NOW!" Oliver bellowed as he ran out the back door of the Foundry to get on his motorcycle.

Felicity winced at his angry voice and continued to try and work her magic. The voice had said "brilliant IT girl" and that had made Felicity's blood run cold in her entire body, her fingers momentarily stopping out of pure shock. Being called out like that by a foe she didn't know and couldn't even see the face of, was not something she had expected.

Suddenly, her computer pinged with a location that seemed to be where the broadcast was coming from and she relayed the information to Oliver, telling him to hurry but also to be careful. Oliver had said nothing to indicate that he had heard her, but she could see the tracer on his motorcycle move towards the place she had pinged on the computer.

**Downtown Starling**

Oliver whizzed past buildings, flitted between cars and trucks on the road, with only one goal in mind. To get the bastard who was threatening the people of his city. Felicity was giving him the details over the comms and he was only half listening when she told him to be careful. The mission he had chosen was to protect the people regardless of what it cost him.

"Felicity, I'm closing in, did you contact Diggle about the situation?" Oliver asked as he skidded around a corner and barely avoided an oncoming car. _Close_, he thought to himself.

"Oliver, I can't get a hold of Diggle, someone's blocking my signals."

Oliver grunted in reply and maneuvered through a back alley that was going to get him closer to the location he needed to go. _Of course they're blocking our communications; I played right into this lunatic's hands…_

When he finally had the building in view, he skidded to a halt right outside the double doors leading into the factory and asked Felicity if she could scan for explosives around the area of the doors. When the scan came up negative, Oliver felt secure enough that he could venture forward and approached the doors cautiously, listening for any sound or movement.

Oliver walked up the steps to the double doors and slowly opened one, peeking inside at what looked like an abandoned warehouse.

"Felicity, are you sure this is the right place? Everything looks deserted!" Oliver questioned as he stood outside the doors waiting to hear back from her. He could hear her fingers moving quickly over her keyboard and clacking keys filled his ears.

"Yes, this is the right place. All my traces lead back to this… I don't understand. Is there a basement? A second floor? Something? I'm searching through the records to see what the floor plan is like." she said while sounding increasingly frantic.

"I'll do a quick sweep, maybe they're trying to hide them somewhere, just keep trying to contact Digg..." _**KABOOM**_

"Oliver?! What happened? Oliver?" Felicity was frantic over the comms, but she could hear no reply.

Then her screen went black suddenly and the menacing face appeared in front of her.

"You didn't think I would make it _that_ easy did you? Oh, you did. That's so…naïve." Felicity's body went completely cold and her hands started shaking as the grim face went in closer to the camera, filling up the entire screen. His eyes were a yellowish color, almost animal like, teeth were yellow and they looked almost ghoulish. His skin was pale to the point of being off color white and his lips were a distracting red grin, smeared on like it was lipstick. His ratted green hair made her skin crawl, but she tried to remain calm.

She focused her attention on another of her screens, while trying to get back in touch with Oliver and Diggle, but she was becoming increasingly worried the longer it took. Finally she got through to Diggle and he was taken aback by the urgency in her voice.

"Diggle, long story short, someone got kidnapped, we tracked the signal, Oliver went after it, we couldn't get to you, and now…I don't know, I heard a big explosion and I can't get in touch with Oliver… I need you to go to him, right now!" Felicity practically screamed the last part out and Diggle knew there was no time to respond, so he rushed out the door to go find his best friend.

Driving like a bat out of hell, Diggle swerved through traffic, becoming more and more worried the longer it took to get to Oliver and he was just hoping with all that he had, that Oliver would be okay and not lying on the ground bleeding out slowly. The information from Felicity he got over the comms while driving to find Oliver had been sparse; something about a madman kidnapping a bunch of people, having them tied up in a room with a bomb and challenging the Arrow to come save the day. _He should have waited till I could back him up…_ Diggle thought solemnly and kept driving.

As he hastily approached his destination, he could hear Felicity trying to get some kind of signal from Oliver, signifying he was okay, but the line was completely dead and he felt Felicity's horror as they both imagined the worst of scenarios. He'd been out there for almost forty minutes, by himself, what if he was already dead?

"Felicity, don't think about stuff like that, I am almost at the scene, and I'll let you know what I find."

Diggle's car screeched to a halt outside the back alley and he drew his gun from his belt as he left the driver's seat slowly. Looking around corners and on rooftops for anything suspicious, he wasn't going to go all, guns blazin' even though he wanted to.

Walking slowly towards the building, he noticed there was a lack of fire, which was positive. That meant the police probably hadn't been called yet because it was a deserted area in the Glades and nobody would have called it in.

That's when he saw him, Oliver, lying at the bottom of the steps up to the double doors.

"Oliver!" Diggle rushed up beside his unconscious friend and searched for a pulse, thankfully he found one quickly. It was very weak, but it was there, which was the most important part. Oliver had dark patches of dust on his face, which was likely from the explosion, but otherwise he looked okay. Diggle examined him quickly to check if anything was broken or punctured but as far as his military training could surmise, Oliver was just knocked out cold and had to be brought home quickly.

Oliver was breathing shallow breaths, but Diggle was just happy that he was actually breathing on his own.

"Felicity…" Oliver said so softly that Diggle wasn't sure he'd heard him right. He picked Oliver up and started walking towards the van.

"I know buddy, you'll see her soon." Diggle positioned Oliver in the back and called Felicity over the comms.

"Felicity, I found Oliver. He looks okay. I'm bringing him in; get some medical supplies ready in case we need to patch him up!" Felicity complied and started getting the Foundry ready to take care of their fearless leader. As she prepped the table, she wondered what a state Oliver would be in when he arrived.

Grabbing the heart paddles, she remembered the first time they had used them on Oliver. That was when she had just barely gotten to know him as her boss and suddenly he revealed himself to be the vigilante of Starling City.

Not long after she had secured the area, Diggle came in the backdoor of the Foundry carrying a still unconscious Oliver.

"Oh goodness, is he okay? Diggle?" Felicity fiddled with her hands as Diggle placed him on the table in the middle of the Foundry.

"I don't know Felicity, we need to get him stabilized and give him some peace. He'll wake up eventually…if not we'll have to take him to the hospital."

Oliver twitched on the table and he mumbled something that neither Felicity nor Diggle could make out.

**Oliver**

He was walking down a dark hallway, somewhere he had never been before. There was dust on the ground; an eerie silence filled his ears. He felt unsafe and his heartbeat picked up a few notches.

Walking slowly past what he assumed to be empty rooms, he wondered when the building would end. Suddenly he heard a noise at the far end of the hall, so he picked up the pace and walked towards the signs of life. Rounding the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks as the source of the noises came into view in the dark. A group of people huddled together in a circle around what appeared to be a bomb.

He walked slowly towards the huddled mass in an attempt to assess the situation, but froze when he saw a familiar lump of blond hair in the crowd.

His hearts was now beating so fast that it felt like it would burst out of his chest.

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes.

A sound broke their trance and suddenly the whole room was engulfed in flames. The fire was ruthless and swift and swallowed everyone in mere seconds, and all Oliver could do was watch in horror.

And then…he screamed.

Authors Note:

I do apologize for not having uploaded a new chapter sooner, but I have been particularly swamped at my work and it's been quite a few hellish weeks. Should be back on track with writing again. Thank you for the people who have favorited and followed this story, means a lot.

/Purple Tornado


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